Quote of the week

Oh my, I haven't been very bloggy lately, have I? (Not that bloggy is a word, but you get the idea.) Life had captured me in its evil net. (Yes, I am trying to gain time here as I don't have a quote up my sleeve right now.) My energy level is pretty low and I really am looking forward to my vacation. (Smart move, get their sympathy, and they'll forgive if you come up with a lousy quote. Oops, did I say that out loud?) All I have been doing lately is edit pictures. (No need to say I also made something for myself, hehe.) My brain cells jump off in bunches like little lemmings. (I can hear them screaming when they go over the "cliffs".) Are you feeling sorry for me yet? (No idea how to keep this up much longer, I'll have to think of something.) Great, now a cat head glued itself to my arm again. (Not even an excuse, it's really there and makes it difficult for me to move.)

Elevator music

Ok, I'm free, so let's go over to my DVD shelf together to pick a movie for today's quote. Ah, one of my favorite movies, so sad yet so beautiful.

And now say this ten times very fast:

With this hand I will lift your sorrows.

Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine.

With this candle, I will light your way into darkness.

With this ring, I ask you to be mine.

The Corpse Bride, USA, 2005

No quote of the week

Cloves and flowers

Did you know that cloves are flower buds of a tree? I didn't, but I do now.

I just wanted to prove to you that I'm still alive and thought I'd do so with my latest listings. The clove earrings are for the Handmade in Europe challenge "Herbs/Spices". Have you checked out our blog this month? The subject is really interesting, even for non-cooking people like me.

One of a kind wire crochet clove earrings

Let's stay with the flowers. I made these quite a while ago, but was looking for different ideas to use the design. There's nothing like an unorganized stash, I'm telling you. I had forgotten there was the back of a barrette in there and I rather like how the flowers look on it. And then one of my favorite songs came to my mind:

"For those who come to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ..." Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco". Perfect!

And I even had two flowers left which I used for earrings. Now I can go back into hibernation, right? ;-)

Wire crochet flower barrette

Quote of the week

Are you ready for another trip into the past?

Maybe you remember that I am an X-Files fan, but today's quote is not from the series. Before there were the X-Files (and David Duchovny *happy sigh*), there was another investigator in the realm of weird, someone who believed in ghosts, aliens, Bigfoot and retainers that can make you hear dogs' thoughts. He was a kid named Marshall Teller, and he and his sidekick Simon lived in Eerie, Indiana - the sister city of Normal, Illinois.

Of course there were not the big special effects then, but it was a really fun series with lots of known actors, too. One day when I grow up I want to live there, in the center of weirdness ;-)

Today's quote is chosen in honor of my cats. I'm quite sure they keep thinking the same, even they want the whole world.

It's from the episode "The retainer".

Poodle (speaking with French accent): As soon as we solve the mystery of the door knob, Eerie is ours!

Eerie, Indiana, USA, 1991 - 1992

Saturday evening

I have been so determined. I started on my housework early this morning and things went well. I even cleaned up my infamous nightstand drawer a bit. Don't tell anybody I did that because I was desperate looking for one of my knitting spools which later proved to be where it should be, ON the nightstand, buried by wire spools however. Do you think knitting and wire spools can breed and I'll find little knitting spools with the wire already on them? Oops, sorry. Digressing.

Then things went downhill fast, and loyal as I am, I went down with them. To be precise, I let myself hit by a vicious nap. I am talking one of those two and a half hour, "where am I?", "who am I?" and "why am I holding on to a crochet hook as if I am trying to fend off a monster with it?", off-to-a-parallel-dimension naps.

(For Deb, in case she'll read this, I do NOT blame Otto of Habsburg.)

I am happy to announce, however, that I am determined again now. Not only did I list a piece, but I also successfully charged the batteries to the motion sensors along the stairs. Tonight my walk downstairs will be a lot safer than it has been for the last two weeks. It's pure luck that Greebo and I didn't make the earth move when I tripped over him that one night. And no, of course it wasn't a cold-blooded attempt to kill me ... was it?

Nah, look at this sweet face, how could he?

Oh, and for the piece I listed - this is my favorite shot of the focal part. I know I have pushed it on about anybody I know, but it's so hypnotizing!

Wire crochet and needle lace necklace with lampwork beads "Metallica"

Blackbird's singing in the dead of night ...

I have loved this song by the Beatles since I was 12 years old. That was when I got my first own cassette player, a used one from a friend, together with her Beatles cassettes that she had grown out of. My love affair with their songs began then and has not ended since.

Now this song from the White Album from 1968 inspired me to make another of my wire critters. I am not sure how the little fellow got so fat if all he gets are small worms like the one in his beak now, but maybe this is just a snack before he really digs in at Bird McDonald's or something like it? And of course he's not singing right now because it would be bad manners with his beak full.

Fly me to the moon

Many years ago I watched a documentary about Picasso. He was telling, uhm, stuff that I have forgotten, all I remember is him painting on a panel of glass. He started painting and then he added a bit here and a bit there, then suddenly painted all over it, and although I'm not a big fan of his paintings, I was hypnotized by the painting changing like that all the time. I have forgotten what he started with and I don't remember what it looked like in the end. I do remember there was a rooster at some point.

The fascinating part was how the painting was in motion throughout the process, much more than I had expected.

I'm not Picasso and I'm no painter. I don't know what drove him to work the way he did, maybe I should have listened better.

What I do know is that I'm still fascinated by a design changing all the time unexpectedly.

The July challenge of the Starving Artists Team is "Fly me to the moon". My first thought was a carved polymer clay moon, the second one was moonstones. Half moon. No, full moon. Did I have enough moonstones left? A small full moon made of silver and moonstones. Yeah, with star charms dangling from it. A pendant. Where's my fine silver? Oh yeah, upstairs. Great, now I forgot to bring the charms as well. Wait, what's this? A few leftover moonstones, smaller ones. Stars. The full moon surrounded by night sky. Black wire with moonstone stars. A flat pendant. No, now that I started working with the black wire I feel a domed look is better. How about a double layer edge since the edge started curling so nicely. Hm, know what? Maybe this shouldn't be a pendant at all, it would be a pretty cool ring. Big, but lightweight, and definitely different. On a sterling silver shank.

See what I mean? When looking at the ring now, you won't even know of all the thoughts that come with it, or the time that went into it. I know and it's why I love so much what I do.

And there it is now - in my shop.

My first big hole bead

I guess this moment comes in almost every woman's life* - the first big hole lampwork bead. Holding it in your hand, caressing it, turning it back and forth, admiring the colors ... dropping it on the floor where a cat takes over and tries to find the goal under the bed ...

The curtain falls because I don't want you to see me crawling around on all fours trying to get my bead back. I wish I wasn't such a klutz sometimes.

The bead was made by Melissa Vess. You heard of her before, the teddy head bead, remember? It's not as if that is the only of her beads I possess, though. I have this adorable octopus that is still waiting for the perfect idea (while I'm waiting for that, I take him out of his box a lot, hold him in my hand ... no, I never dropped him), I have two darling fishies and now that cute little crab which happens to be my zodiac sign! You got the idea, I keep most of Melissa's beads for myself, and it seems I'm particularly in love with her water creatures.

This bead looks like caramel to me. I didn't want to distract from it and I was glad to finally be able to check out if the hole was big enough for one of my wire crochet ropes, so that's all I did. I love how the colors match.

Why don't you check out Melissa's ArtFire studio? There are fish there ....

* I'm kidding. Probably just 90 %. 70 %? 50 %? Who cares. It was exciting for me ;-)

Quote of the week

For my birthday I got a bunch of DVDs, some of them from the Cary Grant collection (yup, there he is again). Inspired by a black mini panther sticking to me at the moment, I chose the following quote for today.

David: I want thirty pounds of sirloin steak, please.
Butcher: Did you say 'thirty pounds'?
David: Yes, that's right. Thirty pounds.
Butcher: How will you have it cut?
David: Oh, just in one piece.
Butcher: Are you gonna roast it or broil it?
David: Neither, it's gonna be eaten raw.

For those who wonder now, the meat is for Baby, and for those who don't know Baby ... he's a three year old leopard from Brazil and in this movie he gives Cary Grant (aka David) and Katherine Hepburn (aka Susan) quite a bit of trouble! ;-)

Bringing up Baby, USA, 1938

Any humans in here?

Not mine, it seems. Guess it's too hot for her again ....

I can't think

Maybe I'll start an auction. Or a giveaway. I don't care how, but would please someone take that heat away from here? I'm sure there are people out there who would love to have it. In fact I already promised 10° C to someone, but he didn't pick them up yet and so I am sitting here, over me just an old roof and lots of heat pressing on my brain. Heck, I even stuck to my blanket and you know how I hate glue of all sorts.

Ok, enough whining for now. What have I been up to?

I played with the needle lace technique a lot again. Give me your rocks, world, and I'll put them in a net and on a rope. You don't believe me? Look here. Oh, the endless possibilities. I feel like swooning from the mere thought.

Or here. I'll have to find more stones like this one. I really love how it turned out. Isn't it amazing how a simple tumbled piece of rose quartz can change just by using some copper wire and one Swarovski crystal? Ok, and some of my time, too. Of course it also gave me more ideas. One of them is #10 on my to-do list. It's #9 now because #6 is already done.

Charlotte's rose pendant

Hey, what? Told you I can't think! Maybe it'll be better tomorrow. If I can sleep and don't have weird dreams, that is. Like being stuck in a town in India, not finding back to my hotel room, but instead walk through the kitchen there a lot. Or chasing spies in Wales while Ponder is running around with feral cats (all of them black) and Esme is following me making squeaking sounds.

Now isn't that a real cliffhanger? ;-)

P.S. For "you know who you are", I ran out of the blue/turquoise wire and have to order it first *blush* I haven't forgotten!

Quote of the week

The early 90s. To be honest I don't remember them too well. Ok, there are a few dates that were important for me, but that's not the point. I don't remember what we wore, what music we listened to or the movies we saw. Mostly it's like "Ooooh, that's from 1991? I didn't know that anymore."

One show however I remember well. It's hard to describe the fascination of watching it now. The outfits, the earrings and of course the electronic devices that are used, they just take me back on a time travel. And above all it's funny. At least for us old dudes who still know what it was all about.

I give you today's quote of the week:

"Not a problem."

Maybe I should tell that myself more often?

Oh, and the show is ...

Parker Lewis can't lose, USA, 1990 - 1993

Awol ... Christmas in July ... working on my stash/preview

What can I say? Day job, heat ... age ;-) All of that is wearing me out at the moment and I can't do things like I want them to do. Sorry about that. I'm alive, though. I am. Don't forget that when you don't see me around much the next few weeks.

I thought however I really should drop in for a bit of the latest news.

Let's start with Christmas in July. Did you know that many of the Smooshers are having a sale for this event? Check out the guild blog to see a list of all the shops participating!

Yup, I'm in there, too. 10 % off each item.

Now to show you that I am not just sitting on my butt, looking DVDs and snuggling with cats, here are a few still unlisted pieces I made over the last few weeks. Should any of them catch your eye and you want to take advantage of the sales price in July, you know where to find me. Just shoot me a message.

I used up my red goldstone beads and aren't they a perfect match?

A fossilized shell in a netting of gunmetal wire with tiny freshwater pearls

The "Doily pendant" ;-) Onyx donut filled not with jam, but different dark beads

Free form serpentine cab made into a heart with fine silver wire crochet accented by rainbow moonstones

Mmmm, Deronda O'Neills clear bubble beads teamed up with fine silver wire crochet beads of my making covered with tiny red carnelian, black and green onyx

Sunflower ring, this is not the only flower I have made, either!

Wait for me, will you? I promise I'll be back! ;-)